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Building Mobile Apps for the Cloud
- February 21, 2015
- Posted by: Admin
- Category: Blogs, Cloud Services, Mobile Development
Challenges in Mobile Application Development
Developing a mobile app involves a lot of discovery and due diligence. One of the major issues when creating an app is determining how the app would be scalable to a range of devices. With Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) becoming the norm in the industry, an app that caters to all mobile devices is likely to be embraced in the enterprise, and develop a loyal user base. Developers need to upskill themselves in order to build apps that are compatible with devices from various vendors and upgrade their technical aptitude to deal with multiple Operating Systems.
The solution to this problem is in building mobile apps for the cloud. Developers can move all data and other artifacts to servers hosted on the cloud. With such a framework, users can access data and other features of an app via their browsers. The intent here is to create a data transferring ecosystem without having to download or install anything to the device.
There are tools and technologies to make a mobile app development initiative easier and faster to deploy. Some of them are:
MEAP: A Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) is a suite of products and solutions to ensure data from the cloud fits devices of any size. MEAP has a robust security mechanism that deletes all data on a device if it gets lost or falls in the wrong hands. MEAP also supports a Content Management System (CMS) that publishes data to all devices independent of the platform.
HTML5: Using HTML5 to create mobile apps for the cloud allows a developer to dynamically update and render data customized to mobile devices without the overhead to invest in expensive hardware and support systems. To top it all, the cloud provides superior processing and performance metrics in contrast to conventional on-the-shelf processing systems.
Harnessing cloud computing in the development of mobile apps opens a lot of avenues for innovation and technological advancements. End users, in the process, gain the most. The advantages of building an app on the cloud are as follows:
- Seamless access to a wide range of back-end features coupled with state of the art security
- Complete independence from device-specific operating parameters
- More centralization in delegating resources
- Anywhere, anytime access to an app without external dependencies
- Easy implementation of patches and updates
Why Mobile App Development For The Cloud
Mobility is critical to an enterprise’s growth and corporate strategy. An enterprise has to tackle a wide array of questions every day, for example, customer service, product strategy, solutions and services, sales and marketing, etc. Cloud-based mobile development has emerged as the de facto answer to all such problems, primarily due to the following reasons:
- Lower operational costs by eliminating back-end servers, APIs, and maintenance and support expenses
- With a cloud ready and waiting, rapid time to market of the app leads to higher customer acceptance and retention
- There is more control in the form of integrated management across the development stack, ranging from server-end to client-side
Client Says
We are implementing Plasma Ag Solutions across our network of locations. Plasma Ag provides several capabilities that stand out for our users such as Programs, Rebate management, and Inventory tracking. It is quite difficult to track margin information on crop protection products in our industry so our Owner Operators love the transparency the system provides. We utilize the system to professionalize our support to the network and it has become a bit success with all of them.
Several hundreds of our retail locations and joint ventures use Plasma Ag solutions as a part of their core operations. Plasma solutions provide very useful tools and deep insights to users – including tracking customer transactions and financial information. Their applications are tightly integrated with CRM, ERP, Accounting, and our other mission critical IT infrastructure and third-party systems. The dashboards provide rich analysis and insights that helps us adjust to the changing markets.
Plasma Ag solutions have been a tremendous asset to our operations. They offer powerful capabilities such as managing Retail programs, Products, Programs, local discounts, and wraps. Ability to track inventory at physical locations, calculating true and average costs, rebates and accruals on user-friendly and simple interfaces has helped us and our retail customers adopt Plasma Ag solutions quickly.
Our software, system and processes used to be an old struggling engine. Plasma team solved all that. With exceptional training and planning, their consultative executive team down to their support team executed the deployment with first-class speed and professionalism. Their platform not only removed all the pain points in my division, but also created a ripple effect benefiting my entire company.
It has been my experience that Plasma has the technical expertise, commitment, and work-ethic to deliver best-in-class solutions that allow business owners to fully realize business strategies and objectives. They work in a highly professional manner to ensure that the clients’ requirements and recommendations are fully realized. I would highly recommend Plasma for any web enablement initiative that you may be considering.
Plasma has been a smart choice for us as our online business partner. I don’t even consider our work with them outsourcing because Plasma management takes the time to truly understand our business and is able to direct its technology resources for the most efficient and quality output possible. I don’t think you can say that about many companies in their space.
Plasma has been a smart choice for us with our online requirements. I would recommend them to any company looking to better manage their online presence.
It has been my pleasure to work with the Plasma Team since August 2008. We have completed three major builds and multiple smaller projects in this time. I heartily recommend Plasma Comp to anyone needing a workable, practical and effective system solution. Plasma’s Q&A process was extremely thorough. They quickly understood what was needed and then worked the process with pointed and penetrating questions to ensure they had the entire picture of the finished product.
I think Plasma has come a long way in embracing our philosophy of becoming more agile, both leading and following in this area when necessary. The teams have been very open to change and have a great attitude. I have no complaints!
Plasma is a great vendor to work with. They took us from an email-based process to a fully designed, web-based workflow. They have dramatically changed how our devices are certified to be used on our network and they will save you time as well! One of the many processes in our current environment has saved us so much time; from four months down to a few days!
